In 1993, Shaheen and Linda Sadeghi turned a night-vision goggle factory on Bristol Street into a shopping center for the young skaters and artists who were already gathering there. They promised those kids they wouldn't be pushed out. The first tenant to sign a lease was Urban Outfitters.
Thirty-some years later, that first tenant is gone. Its old space shows what The LAB Anti-Mall plans to be from here on. The name stands for "Little American Business," and the 12,000-square-foot store that once held a national chain now holds a row of small shops. Several of them had never had a physical store before.
The Tenant That Was 40% of the Center
The Orange County Business Journal reported that Urban Outfitters had accounted for 40% of The LAB's tenancy. Owner and operator Linda Sadeghi chose to bring in more small businesses. She started renovating in 2025 and split the space into smaller storefronts built for independent brands.
She explained her reasoning to the Business Journal:
"Retail has changed. You don't need 12,000 square feet."
She went looking for small businesses with strong online followings, especially ones ready to open their first store. Long Beach firm Studio One Eleven designed the new spaces, and Servco Builders of Irvine built them. Sadeghi also added a paseo, a walkway that runs through the old Urban Outfitters entrance, so the space now works as a passage into the center.
"I'm going back to our roots because I think it's still meaningful and it's still a relief from traditional retail and other shopping centers," she told the Business Journal. "I want to still be the anti-mall."
Who Took the Old Urban Outfitters Space
The Business Journal counts six businesses in the reworked space as of early November, with one unit still open. These five are among them.
| Business | What it is | Where it stands |
|---|---|---|
| SAD Eyewear | Eyewear brand with its first physical store | Opened Aug. 21, 2026 |
| Landers Supply House | Locally owned vintage shop with denim, cowboy boots and workwear | Opened Aug. 29, 2026 |
| Casa Caia | New movement and wellness studio combining sculpt, mat Pilates and restorative classes | Open in the reworked space |
| Berlinc | Los Angeles denim brand opening its first store | Announced for fall 2026 |
| Cotton Collective | Los Angeles apparel brand known for custom screen printing | Announced for fall 2026 |
Most of the list follows the same pattern. SAD Eyewear and Berlinc are both opening their first physical stores here. Orange Coast magazine covered SAD Eyewear's opening as its move from online into a shop. These brands built a following online first and chose The LAB as the place to meet those customers in person. That is the same kind of business the center was built for in 1993.
Casa Caia takes the idea further than a typical Pilates studio. Its classes are paired with far-infrared heat, red-light therapy and Himalayan salt.
While Sadeghi looks for a tenant, artist, urban designer and landscape architect Matthew Beehler has used it as an artist-in-residence space.
The Rest of 2026 Followed the Same Rule
The small-tenant approach goes beyond the old Urban Outfitters space. Every other business The LAB added this year is also small, independent, or both.
The Fleuria is a bookstore focused on romance novels, and it's housed in an Airstream trailer. Costa Mesa Insider covered its grand opening on June 13, 2026, which began with an 11 a.m. ribbon cutting.
Eyla is a salon for brow and lash services, added this year.
Ambitious Ales started in Long Beach in 2012. Five friends founded it after a trip to the Oregon Brewers Festival. The LAB taproom pours craft beer and also serves frozen squishees and rotating nonalcoholic drinks, with food from local pop-ups. The brewery held its Costa Mesa grand-opening weekend Oct. 24 and 25, and The LAB's tenant page lists its hours.
Even the brewery fits. Its founding story is about friends who started small and grew, which is the profile Sadeghi says the center exists to support. The Business Journal describes the year's changes as an effort to restore The LAB's original mission of giving independent businesses a place to grow.
The Old Gypsy Den Space Gets Its Restaurant in 2027
The largest piece still to come is in another long-empty space. Gypsy Den closed in late 2022. Its space is now under construction for Three Eyed Tiger, a restaurant from Zach Scherer, who runs Darkroom Restaurant and Wine Bar in Santa Ana.
In September, Scherer told the Orange County Register he hoped to open in early December or before the end of the year, and he described the place as a restaurant and bar built around Orange County's heritage. The Business Journal's Nov. 2 report puts the opening in early 2027.
Sadeghi hopes the restaurant will bring the same energy as Habana, the Cuban restaurant that has been a LAB tenant for years. Habana's current hours are posted on The LAB's site. Ruin Bar, another longtime tenant, celebrated its 10th anniversary on Sept. 27.
Why the Pep Boys Lot Next Door Matters
What happens inside The LAB matters more because of what the family is doing around it. LAB Holding owns The CAMP across Bristol and the Anaheim Packing House. In August it closed on the 18,053-square-foot Pep Boys service center on Bristol Street for $10.5 million, according to CoStar records cited by the Business Journal.
Managing Director Sebastian Sadeghi, the founders' oldest son, told the Business Journal it was the largest piece of land in the SoBECA District the family didn't already own. SoBECA stands for South on Bristol, Entertainment, Culture & Arts. The district starts at Bristol and Baker streets and covers two blocks on the east side of the 73 freeway. LAB Holding owns more than a dozen properties there, and the Pep Boys deal followed six other acquisitions in the past year. Plans for the site, under the name "Project SoBECA," will be revealed in the coming months.
According to the same report, the LAB companies have spent decades adding traffic signals, crosswalks and street parking across the 39-acre area to make it easier to walk between their properties, consistent with Costa Mesa's 2006 urban plan for mixed-use development there. In April, The CAMP's journal said it expected more than 20 new small businesses to open across the family's district properties in 2026.
The CAMP shows the same approach. Maleza, a modern Mexican restaurant from chef Marco Arreguín, opened Sept. 12 in the yurt that once held Native Foods. Outer Limits Tattoo, owned and run by Kari Barba since 1983, is still in The CAMP's directory.
Before You Head Over
- Walk in through the new paseo at the old Urban Outfitters entrance to reach the new storefronts.
- Creative Mornings is on the calendar for Friday, Nov. 20. The LAB events page lists it as a free monthly talk.
- Check hours before you go for Ambitious Ales and Habana on their LAB tenant pages.
- Three Eyed Tiger is expected in early 2027 in the old Gypsy Den space.
Our family has worked in this county since 1984, and we've watched Bristol Street change one storefront at a time. If you live near SoBECA and wonder how a district filling up with independent shops affects what your home is worth, Doug Merlino and the team at BeachPointe Properties will give you a straight answer, starting with a free instant home valuation.
